"They Don't Know What it's Like to be Blind": Assessing Healthcare Access for Visually Impaired New Yorkers

Disabled individuals at large, and visually impaired individuals in particular, encounter a range of obstacles when attempting to access healthcare in the United States. However, the few studies that have documented the experiences of visually impaired patients as they access healthcare either fail to capture the voices of a diverse range of participants or focus on documenting the opinions of healthcare providers and not of their patients. In this paper, I identify the strengths and weaknesses that visually impaired adults residing in New York State encounter when accessing healthcare. Using Community Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) methods, I interviewed 47 visually impaired adults residing in New York State to document strengths/solutions and weaknesses/obstacles they encountered when visiting a healthcare provider. Specifically, I found that visually impaired patients were most impacted by the environmental factors of transportation, design of facilities, and the format of written information, as well as the personal factors of staff's sensitivity toward and familiarity with appropriately assisting disabled individuals. Participants also noted encountering an array of illegal obstacles, ranging from inaccessible buildings to one instance of sexual assault by a physician. Based on these findings, I offer recommendations for both government actors and healthcare providers and argue that both sets of actors must work to improve compliance with existing accessibility legislation. The findings presented here may help guide these actors as they work to develop more comprehensive policies and legislation in the future to ensure improved access to healthcare for visually impaired individuals.